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Why Reporters Matter–Reason #6,924

April 1, 2016

Journalists and reporters are the reason our democracy thrives. That has long been a point made on this blog.

The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure. –Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823.

So it comes as no surprise that I post the following from the Washington Post.

Anyone who has doubts about the importance of journalists in 2016 need be acquainted only with the reporting team at AL.com, the largest statewide news organization in Alabama. The group’s reporters cracked open a scandal involving their governor’s alleged infidelity last week and have been covering the unpredictable fallout aggressively ever since.

This scandal didn’t come to them overnight; they’ve been hearing rumors of an affair between Gov. Robert Bentley (R) and his top political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, for months. The story finally broke open on March 22 when a fired top law enforcement official went on the record to AL.com’s John Archibald about the alleged affair and offered proof. Faced with damning evidence of a taped phone conversation to a woman named Rebekah, Bentley has denied he had an affair, but few in a state accustomed to scandal believe him.

So lets salute and thank those intrepid reporters who keep us aware of the news and facts needed in order to maintain the type of nation we live in–may it always be so.

And the list of those who got the Iraq invasion wrong is about the length of a phone book. But that does not put his reporting credentials into question. Or his journalistic skills. And I say this as one who adamantly was opposed to the invasion.

Sorry, but I forgot this quote I wanted to include. This is Goldberg Oct. 3, 2003, ” I believe that the coming invasion of Iraq will be remembered as an act of profound morality.”
You’ll have to excuse me for not being impressed with this dude.

So a few days ago you had never heard of Goldberg–and therefore had never read any of his articles–and now you are somehow ‘insightful’ about him–and I suggest without reading any of his articles. Yeah….

But it needs noting you had no idea who Jeffrey Goldberg was so perhaps you need more exposure to a larger number of journalists before making a claim about the ‘MSM stories.’ But all the same, thanks for your comment.

What I see is the Narrative Collapse of so many MSM stories like the Virginia Rape Case and the injustice done by Sabrina Erdely, the Duke Lacrosse team rape that didn’t happen, or poor little ‘gentle giant’ Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO,
And then we have reporters like Michelle Fields who has cried wolf on more than one occasion.
But I agree, we could use more Sharyl Attkissons.